Page 73 of The Night Shift
Very slowly, I reach into my pocket to pull out my phone. One new message.
UNKNOWN: I told you to come alone, didn’t I?
No.
No, no, no, NO!
“What is it?” Theo whispers. When I don’t respond, he asks again. “Holly, what is it?”
I shake my head. “I-I don’t understand. I thought it was you. It had to be you.” The accusation, born out of desperation and paranoia, now tastes like ash in my mouth. Theo is standing right in front of me. His hands are right where I can see them, his phone is in my pocket, which means he…isn’tthe one behind these messages.
Dread rises within me anew.
If not him, then who? The thought of someone else, someone unknown, someone utterly new, watching me, knowing my movements, sends a fresh wave of nausea rolling through my gut.
I look up to meet his gaze. The playful glint in his eyes is long gone, replaced by a deep well of genuine fear. My grip around the shovel tightens. “I don’t get it…I...the messages, the timing —”
Before I have a chance to finish my sentence, my phone buzzes again. Another text.
UNKNOWN: Roses are red, violets are blue, I have two sharp things and one of them is going inside you.
Attached below is a picture of a knife and a meat cleaver laid out on my bed.
Chapter 14
Theo
Now
In a movie, this would be exactly the part where the audience would be yelling at the screen, urging me to use this moment of distraction to my advantage and make a run for it. It’s basic instinct — to survive. I should run. I shouldwantto run. But instead, I feel myself wanting to stay. It’s like one force is pulling and another is fighting for control over me. I can’t walk away. Not right now. Not when her short blonde waves, all tousled and sweaty, are falling around her face and framing it like a halo.
Holly’s eyes remain glued to her phone, beautiful and brown and as unresponsive as a statue’s. Silence falls between us, the quiet growing too loud until I can’t stand it.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice laced with concern that borders on desperation.
Silence, heavy and suffocating is my only answer.
“Holly?”
Still nothing.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I snatch the phone from her trembling hand, my fingers brushing against hers in a fleeting connection, and look at the screen.
UNKNOWN: Roses are red, violets are blue, I have two sharp things and one of them is going inside you.
What the…
Unfiltered anger surges through me. How DARE someone threaten Holly like this? HowDAREsomeone enter her bedroom without her permission and violate her sanctuary like this?! The audacity!
I start typing out a response.
“Theo, give it back!” Holly lunges at me, a whirlwind of fury. But I’m bigger. And despite what she thinks, faster too.
I wrap one arm around her waist and trap her arms against her side, hauling her against me. Her breath hitches as her back presses against my chest, warm and hard. A defiant snarl bubbles in her throat, and she squirms in my arm. “Let. MeGO!”
I don’t.
Instead, I turn my head to one side as the top of her head grazes my cheek. Her perfume (daffodils and vanilla) combined with some other warm, earthy scent (probably blood or sweat) spins me in a cocoon of heady sensations. A sharp pain spreads in my abdomen where the stab wound is, but the feel of her arse pressed up against my hardening cock overpowers it. She squirms some more. I hold her tight and use my free hand to type out an eloquent response.
